Combined apron, towel, and hooded cape



April 6, 1955 R. M. SCHNEIDER COMBINED APRON, TOWEL AND HOODED cm: FiledSept 15, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. Ruth Mansfield Schneider BYWHITEHEAD 8 VOGL ATTORNEYS April 6, 1955 R. M. SCHNEIDER 2,706,817

COMBINED APRON. TOWEL AND HOODED CAPE Filed Sept. 15, 1952 2Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig.6

v INVENTOR. Ruth Mansfield Schnelder BY WHITEHEAD a VOGL h PER mlATTORNEYS United States Patent COMBINED APRON, TOWEL, AND HOODED CAPERuth Mansfield Schneider, Denver, Colo.

Application September 15, 1952, Serial No. 309,578

1 Claim. (Cl. 2-s4 This invention relates to a combined apron, towel andchilds robe, and, more particularly, to an article which is not onlypecularily adapted to be worn as an apron by a mother or nurse whenbathing a small child, but which is likewise pecularily adapted for useas a towel in drying the child and is likewise pecularily adapted to beinverted and worn by such child as a cape or bath robe. The word nursewill be used herein to designate any person bathing or attending suchchild. The term inverted is herein used to indicate the change of thegarment from its position in use as an apron (wherein one surface of thegarment is outside) to its use as a cape wherein the other surface ofthe garment is outside.

Objects of the invention are to provide an article of apparel whichcombines, within it, elements which adapt it to be worn as an apron by anurse when bathing a child, as a towel for drying the child and as acape or robe to be worn by such child, and which: (a) is so formed andpleated as to fit the nurse neatly, regardless of size, when worn as anapron, and to fit a child neatly when inverted and worn as a cape orrobe; (b) is so constructed as to form either a neat apron or a neatcape or robe while being of such shape as to also serve most efficientlyas a towel for drying a child upon the lap of a nurse wearing the apron;(c) includes a hood adapted to cover the head of a child either whilebeing dried or when the article is worn as a cape or robe; (d) is madeof material which adapts the article to each and all of the three usesmentioned above, and (e) is simple and economical in construction,wearing and laundering.

With these and other objects in view, all of which more fullyhereinafter appear, my invention comprises certain new and novelconstructions, combinations and arrangements of parts and elements ashereinafter described, and as defined in the appended claim andillustrated, in preferred embodiment, in the accompanying drawing, inwhich:

Figure 1 illustrates a woman wearing my improved article as an apron andwith hands holding two corners away from the body in order to betterillustrate the shape of the article.

Figure 2 illustrates the article being used as a towel for drying aninfant.

Figure 3 illustrates the infant wearing the article when inverted fromthe apron position and as a hooded cape or robe.

Figure 4 is a front elevation view of the article spread out in a planeto better show the details of its construction.

Figure 5 is a fragmentary portion of the rear side of the article.

Figure 6 is a section as viewed from the indicated llne 6-6 at Fig. 4.

Figure 7 is a fragmentary detail of a portion of the article as viewedfrom the indicated line 7--7 at Fig. 4, but on an enlarged scale.

The problems of bathing a young child often involve difficulties whichmay become vexing to the nurse who must avoid splashing water upon herclothes, often while holding the child, she must reach for a towel thathas fallen or is on a rack; she may, for various reasons, have to pickup the child, Wet and uncovered, and she must have special clothingprepared for the child after his bath. The present invention wasconceived and developed to meet such and other problems and to simplifythe task of bathing a child and solve problems incidental thereto, andthe invention comprises, in essence, an article of absorbent materialwhich may be worn as an apron to protect the nurses clothing while thechild is being bathed, which is already in place upon the nurses lap foruse as a towel to dry the child and which includes a hood for the childwhile being dried and tie cords for use in securing the article to thenurse when wearing the article as an apron and for securing the articleto the child when inverted and worn as a hooded cape or robe.

Referring to the drawing, the article is formed in generallydiamond-shaped piece 10 of absorbent material, such as terry cloth, andthe edges are folded and bound by stitching 11 to prevent ravelling ofthe cloth. Because of the conventional weaving of the cloth, it ispreferably originally cut square and thereafter formed as hereinafterdescribed. Its size is such that it will cover the larger portion of anurses body with the top point 12 near the wearers throat and the bottompoint 13 near her ankles. The side points 14 have a similar span betweenthem and provide free moving flaps which maybe easily grasped as shownat Fig. 1 to serve as towel portions.

When worn as an apron, the lower half of the diamond 10 and the lowerportion of the upper half of the diamond forms a skirt 15 and the upperportion of the upper half of the diamond forms one layer of a bib 16.The demarcation between the skirt and bib portions of the apron, at thewaistline 17 of the wearer, is defined by a double under-pleat 18 ateach side of the diamond, formed by opposing substantial under tucks ofcloth at the underside of the apron and held in position at the head ofthe pleats by a triangular pattern of stitching 19. Each pleat 18 ispositioned in substantially spaced parallelism with and alongside itsrespective adjacent edge 20 of the upper portion of the diamond 10, thetriangular stitchings 19 being at the waistline 17. The pleats actuallydiverge from the stitchings 19 causing the respective upper edges 20 ofthe diamond to angle inwardly to form inward corners 21 at the waistline17. To complete this apron construction, a waist cord 22 is secured ateach corner 21 and a neck halter cord 23 is provided which is attachedto each edge 20 near the top point 12 to form a loop above the bib.

The top portion of the bib 16 is generally covered by triangular piece24, of material preferably like that of the diamond, and laid upon thediamond 10 with the edges of their apex portions coinciding and securedtogether as by stitching 11 whereby to form a hood 25. The base of thetriangle 24 forms the front rim of the hood 25 and it may be set 011, asby fringe, 26 for decorative purposes.

In use, as an apron as shown at Fig. 1, the halter cord 23 is placedover the wearers neck and the cords 22 are tied around her waist. Thepleats 18 cause the apron to fit neatly over her hips and the bib to fitloosely above her waist. The corners 14 at each side of the diamond, maybe pinned to the wearers dress or they may hang slack as desired, andare always handy to serve as towels for Wiping the arms and body of thechild. The apron will protect the wearers clothing whenever the childsplashes water. To dry the child after bathing, the apron is adapted tobe used in several ways. It is desirable to release the cords fromaround the wearers waist but to retain the halter in position, and thento place the child upon the wearers lap, with the skirt portion 15wrapped about its body, with its head in the hood 25 while the wearer isdrying its body, as clearly shown at Fig. 2. Upon the completion of thedrying, the cords 22 are tied around the childs neck and the steps ofinverting the apron to make it a cape commence, the skirt portion of theapron being adapted to fold around the body of the child to become thecape, all as clearly shown at Fig. 3, with the pleats 18 at its arms andthe stitchings 19 forming shoulders of the garment while the bib becomesthe hood. Thus, the apron becomes a comfortable hooded cape or robe forthe child.

While I have illustrated and described many details of construction,alternatives and equivalents will occur to those skilled in the artwhich are within the scope and spirit of my invention; hence it is mydesire that my pro tection be not limited to the details hereinillustrated and described, but only by the proper scope of the appendedclaim.

I claim:

An apron-towel-hooded-cape garment, for use in nursecare of smallchildren, formed of an originally substantially square piece of materialand, when positioned with one of its diagonals vertical, having incombination the following elements: the side edges of the material abovethe horizontal diagonal being drawn toward each other in their upperportions to form a contracted waist line with a bib portion thereabove,the upper portion of the bib being triangular and having a substantiallytriangularly shaped piece of material affixed thereto along theircorresponding side edges near the apex but being otherwise unconnected,and thereby adapted to form a hood, a halter-loop having its endsattached to the upper portion of the bib and waist-cords attached to thegarment A, at said waist line, whereby the garment may be worn as anapron by a nurse with the halter around her neck and the waist-cordstied about the waist, and may be used as a towel for a child on thenurses lap, with the waist-cords untied, and also may form a hooded capefor the child with its head in the hood and the body of the materialcovering the child, with the waist-cords about the child, the surface ofthe garment next the nurse, when worn as an apron, being on the outsidewhen worn as a cape.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,933,185 Rouleau Oct. 31, 1933 2,242,641 Berger May 20, 1941 2,442,895Hill June 8, 1948

